Indian Railways: Bio-toilets installed on all trains from East Coast zone

The East Coast Railway has installed bio-toilets in all conventional coaches of trains originating from the ECoR zone, taking a step towards ‘Swachha Rail, Swachha Bharat’ campaign, as reported by PTI.

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In an attempt to provide clean and eco-friendly travel and fulfilling the railway's commitment towards the ‘Swachha Rail, Swachha Bharat’ campaign, the East Coast Railway (ECoR) has installed bio-toilets in all conventional coaches of trains originating from the ECoR zone, an official statement said on May 6.

Installing bio-toilets in trains will convert the human waste into water and bio-gases with the help of bacteria and will contribute towards the ‘Swachha Rail, Swachha Bharat’ campaign.

Stating that this mechanism of bio-toilets is very helpful in sustainable management of solid waste, the ECoR has installed bio-toilets in 2089 conventional coaches and achieved 100 percent bio-toilet fitment in all its coaches.

Installation of all the conventional coaches with bio-toilets in ECoR will not only help to maintain cleanliness by preventing discharge of human waste on railway tracks, but also protect tracks from corrosion. And, hence, it will reduce the maintenance cost of railway assets, and improve safety of train operation, it said.

East Coast Railway has also installed bacteria plants at Carriage Repair Workshop at Mancheswar and all its Coaching Depots at Bhubaneswar, Visakhapatnam, Puri and Sambalpur which are being used in the bio-toilets.

ECoR is also providing a soft flush system in bio-toilets for easy flushing of waste. Litter bins are also provided in each toilet fitted with bio-tanks to avoid dumping of waste into toilet pans. For awareness of passengers about proper use of bio-toilets, pictorial messages are displayed in coaches about Do(s) and Don't(s) activities, when using bio-toilets.

Starting from cleanliness drives to establish different pollution control activities, the Environment and Housekeeping Management (EnHM) wing has taken different measures to control the pollution and ensure a pollution-free environment.

These activities include pollution control measures at railway sidings, automatic coach washing plants, effluent treatment plants, pole hanging twin dustbins, sewerage and water treatment plants, solid waste management measures, plastic bottle crushing machine, compost plant, sanitary pad incinerators, solar power plant, greenery development and green initiatives, waste to energy plants, rain water harvesting pits apart from bio-toilets.

(With inputs from PTI)